New England Cruise pictures and comments

[George ( C&C 40 )]

Hi All,


After six weeks or so we have made it back to Williamsburg, VA. It was a wonderful trip despite lots of rain, storms, and fog. I would like to thank everybody who gave advice on gear, system requirements, and cruising in New England. Everything worked extremely well and after six weeks on the high seas I'm not sure I would change much of anything. I think we are in pretty good shape for our upcoming Bahama's trip. Just so this isn't a really long post I'll break the trip up into a few segments.

The boat is a 1979 C&C 40 in excellent shape. These boats are designed as a fast racer / cruiser.

Segment 1 -- Wormley Creek Marina -- Yorktown, VA to Newport, RI

Crew for this segment includes my friends Dan and Amy Fox and my wife Denise -- all experienced racing sailors.

We left the lower end of the Chesapeake Bay during a storm and other than a few hours here and there we sailed in or near storms the whole way up. Seas ran from 3 to 5 at the low end to 5 to 8 at the high end. Winds averaged around 20 knots on the port quarter or beam except during storms when the wind was in the low to mid 30's and could be from any direction. We had to pass Fire Island twice on the way up because we got crushed ( very very high winds ) by a nasty thunderstorm line which drove us 14 miles due South before it blew past us -- The previous day we got blown 15 miles in towards the shore and ended up a few hundred yards off the entrance bouys to Barnegat Bay) The boat has real time NEXRAD color weather radar overlayed on a big Garmin 3210 chartplotter. This allowed us to avoid the worst of the storms but there were so many of them we still got caught a few times.

The rhumb line distance to Newport, RI was right around 400 miles ( although we probably covered closer to 450 ) and we made it in 2 days and 19 hours. Denise set the speed record during the 3am to 6am watch on the second day. When I came up on deck to relieve her it was blowing right at 25 knots and she had all the sails up plus the engine at full cruise. She said that this setup allowed here to skip the boat along the wave tops rather than get bogged down in the troughs. Average speed for her three hour watch -- 9.7 knots. Watches were 4 hours each during the days and 3 hours each at night.

It was impossible to get any photo's during storms but I was able to get a few either right before or right after a front hit us.









Racing along at dawn the first morning after a stormy night...


The Crew...


Dan's wife Amy proved to be very tough out there on the high seas...






We arrived in Newport Harbor right at dawn but here's a shot from later that day...



Our mooring ball at the Ida Lewis Yacht Club was in the New York Yacht Clubs front yard.



Yacht Club members can stay as guests of the Ida Lewis Yacht Club. $60 bucks a night gets you unlimited use of their launch and driver plus run of the club, showers, bar, etc.




I'll put up some pictures of the next segment soon.

George Jones

[Tim]

Dan's wife Amy proved to be very tough out there on the high seas...

hehe...from the angle of these photos, it looks like she's got a big jet pack or something strapped on her back!

Thanks for the photos and ongoing log. I'm looking forward to the next segment!

[Ryan]

Dan's wife Amy proved to be very tough out there on the high seas...

hehe...from the angle of these photos, it looks like she's got a big jet pack or something strapped on her back!

Thanks for the photos and ongoing log. I'm looking forward to the next segment!

I thought to myself, wow, having a outboard motor on your strapped to your back ought to make a MOB drill a lot easier on the crew!

[George ( C&C 40 )]

Hi Again All,

The second segment of the trip was from Newport Harbor to Block Island to Hadley Harbor to the Cape Cod Canal across the Gulf of Maine to the Canadian border and down to Roque Island. The run from the Sandwich Town Marina to Roque Island was done as one extremely long overnight trip. I think it was 5am to 6pm the following day at an average speed of 7.5 knots.


One of my favorite harbors is the Great Salt Pond on Block Island. Great town, great beaches, and Aldo's Bakery brings fresh pastries out to the cruising boats in the mooring field each morning.



In every large harbor we spent any time in there were always large schooners or windjammers weaving through the mooring fields. This appears to be some sort of unofficial sport in New England.



Southwest Lighthouse on Block Island


Looking out of Hadley Harbor towards Woods Hole, MA



A copy of Eldridge's Tide and Current Book is an essential piece of equipment for running the various sounds and canals in southern New England. Here we are running the Cape Cod Canal at 9 knots



The Railroad Bridge on Bourne, MA side of the Cape Cod Canal



In our run across the Gulf of Maine we came across 35 or so humpback whales. They never got too close to the boat and were very difficult to photograph with my slow digital camera but this picture gives you a feel for what they look like out on the high seas.



We made a big curve along the coast of Nova Scotia on the way up. This is the only picture of Nova Scotia I have as the land became a solid mass of white cloud around 9am that day.



We took this picture of the towers along the U.S. Canadian border as we continued our curve down towards Roque Island.



Mission accomplished as we walked the great beach of Roque Island. This is the furthest north east that we anchored the boat on our trip.




That's all for now,

George

[Figment]

and Aldo's Bakery brings fresh pastries out to the cruising boats in the mooring field each morning.

We didn't hear the "Andiamo! Andiamoooooo!" when we were on block for Off Soundings, and we assumed that they'd stopped. Glad to hear that this isn't the case! It must've simply been too early in the season, the island wasn't completely in gear yet.

Great stuff, keep it coming!

[George ( C&C 40 )]

Time for segment #3...


One of the highlights of the trip was hiking in the fog and rain through the Great Wass Island Wilderness. To do this, we put into a hurricane hole known as "The Mudhole" on Great Wass Island. From the Mudhole you could dinghy to the side of the mudhole, scramble up the rock and seaweed, over the lip of the forest and meet up with the loop trail that circles the island. My favorite part of the hike is the section along the mudhole itself through some truly ancient, moss and lichen covered forest. All in all, we spent five days hiking from the Mudhole. Evenings were spent eating mussles steamed in white wine and garlic.


Tucked safely in the Mudhole



It rained and was foggy four of the five days we were there so "Fog Drinks" became the order of the day around sunset ( fogset )



Tasty!


Tides ran around 14 feet while we were there. This is a forty foot sailboat against a 13 foot tide backdrop



We spent a couple days in Frenchman Bay including one evening in Bar Harbor. A storm had caused some large ship dragging which destroyed their mooring field. Anchoring was discourged as you might never get your anchor back up off the bottom. We spent the night at the town dock. A very rolly night at that in the SE swell!




That's all for now,

George

[George ( C&C 40 )]

Segment # 4


Hi Again All,

The next part of our trip tok us from Bar Harbor all the way to Portland, ME. The time frame was about the 7'th of July to about the 26'th of July. Lots of fog and lots of rain but we did some wonderful hiking in Acadia National park for the better part of a week as well as a few days in the Blue hills of Camden and Jewell Island State Park.


One of my absolute favorite harbors in all of Maine was Northeast Harbor. Good sleeping, good food, and good hiking. A wonderful place.



We spent four days in Northeast harbor because of rain and fog.



When it's foggy and rainy it's time to go hiking in Acadia. Beautiful!



Northeast harbor is great because it's an easy dinghy ride to Southwest harbor or sightseeing in Sommes Sound. The restaurant on the pier in Southwest harbor is wonderful.



A beautiful, but sometimes rolly anchorage off Merchant Island in the "Merchant's Row" group of Islands.



Penobscot Bay is full of Windjammer's. Here's one of the several we passed on our way to Castine from Merchant's Row.



We have friends in Castine and spent a few days as their guests. Castine is also a wonderful town.



We had a beautiful day of sailing down to Camden from Castine and passed a lot of gaff rigged schooners. Beautiful boats up here in Penobscot Bay!



If there's any swell out of the Southeast you need to be in the inner harbor while visiting Camden. Bad sleeping in the outer harbor.



A couple more days of hiking above Camden.



Another full day of instrument only sailing out to Allen island in Muscongus Bay.



More hiking out to one of the WWII observation towers on Jewell Island in Casco Bay.



Another day of driving rain.



A few day's at Dimillo's and the restaurants of the Oldport make any trip a good one.





That's all for now,

George

[Figment]

This one cracks me up. Stemware, matching pots and bowls, and George looking fresh as a daisy, right from the barber.... man you 40-footers really know how to live!!!

Quite the contrast...

[dasein668]

man you 40-footers really know how to live!!!

Hehe. I was thinking the same thing about "easy dinghy ride to Southwest or Somes Sound"!

Heather and I agree, though, that Northeast Harbor is a great spot for all the reasons George mentioned.

Sounds like you had a great trip, George! Sorry we didn't get a chance to meet while you were here.

[George ( C&C 40 )]

Hi Figment,


I was going to mention this in the trip summary but now is as good a time as any....

The C&C 40 is a realtively low-to-the-water offshore racer / cruiser and looks somewhat small compared to a modern "floating condo" 40 footer. That being said, I've still always thought of "Delphinus" as a pretty big boat. Big enough for a watermaker and a shower at least.

My experience in New England has changed the way I view my boat though. "Delphinus" is now a small boat. Once we cleared 20 miles or so offshore I didn't see a single boat under about 46 feet and most were 50 feet or more. Huge heavy displacement boats too. The big harbors in N.E. were worse -- Monster sailboats everywhere! Bay of Fundy as well, huge aluminum and steel hull things.

All the cruisers we passed offshore looked like hardened cruisers too. Radar, wind generators, extra welds on the pulpits to hold more jerry cans, huge anchors, etc. It appears that sailing really is bigger up in New England.


George

[Jason K]

What a trip. Thanks for the updates.

[George ( C&C 40 )]

Hi Nathan,


I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to see you guys in Portland. I purchased one of those Panasonic "Toughbooks" computers to keep on the boat and checked into the forum every few days while on my trip. I was sorry to see that I had already missed you when I logged on in Portland. I do hope you had a good cruise yourself though. I also looked hard for any of the other guys on the forum as we went up and down the coast. Most likely passed a few of you in the fog and never knew it.

I did see one guy from the forum though. While at a mooring in N.E. Harbor a young couple in a dinghy motored by and asked if I was the "George Jones" that posts to Tim's "Plastic Classic Forum". It turned out to be Trevor who was restoring and re-painting the Alberg 30 "Osprey". Trevor appeared to learn a lot from the forum because "Osprey" looks great! Trevor's running the water taxi service in N.E. Harbor this summer.


George

[Tim]

"Delphinus" is now a small boat.

How do you think we feel sailing these silly little Tritons around up here? hehe Talk about feeling tiny and insignificant. Good thing we know what's cool and what's not.

That said, there are plenty of small boats still around. But you did hit all of the typical haunts for the big boats and the out of state visitors (Northeast, Roque, Camden, Castine, Portland), so it makes sense that you'd see an even larger proportion of big cruising boats. There are still a few places where the big guys don't seem to come. Though it gets tougher every year.

I think it's sort of ridiculous, the size of the typical cruising boat out there these days. Something is wrong with this picture.

[George ( C&C 40 )]

Segment 5

Hi All,

Denise was flying back to Virginia from Portland on the 27'th of July and one of my friends from the York River Yacht Club had flown up to help me take the boat back down the coast. My younger brother was also able to join us for a few days which was fun. We sailed From Portland through the Cape Cod Canal, through Woods Hole, out to Martha's Vinyand, to Newport, to Atlantic City, and finally to Yorktown, VA. Since it was three guys on this segment of the trip the focus tended to be on playing cards, hanging out on the beach, and eating at good restaurants. The highlight being a four hour meal at Morton's in Atlantic City. We did the entire 600 plus miles of sailing from Portland to Yorktown in 3 overnight trips. Most of the two weeks it took us to get back was recovering from the previous evenings dinner out :-)



I've always wanted to be one of those boats that visitors to Portland Head Light look out on...



One of the most satifying things I've ever done under sail was "Shooting the Hole" Crazy trecherous against a couple knots of current but we managed to do the whole thing under sail. Picture is of the town of Woods Hole as we sailed through.



More storms on the way down. This one we had to pass through to get to Atlantic City.



My friend Rich after getting us through a storm.



Leaving Atlantic City at dawn



Sunset on the Eastern shore of VA




Home Again!


George

[Tom Young]

It's always fun to see things from another boats perspective, especially your home waters. Thanks.

[George ( C&C 40 )]

Hi Again All,


Concluding thoughts on our 2007 N.E. Cruise -- Yorktown, VA to Roque Island, ME and back. Total distance cruised was a little over 1600 nautical miles in 6 or so weeks. June 20'th to August 4'th. Our time on the Maine coast went from July 1'st to July 29'th.


I'm sure a lot of this is old hat to all of you who live in New England but these following thoughts struck me as a first time cruiser to N.E. Most of these apply to Maine which is where we spent the most time.

1. Radar! I'm not sure if 2007 was an abberation but we spent many many days in the fog. Fog started to become dicy along the Canadian border on the 3'rd of July and we delt with fog until we cleared the tip of Long island a month later. We had no less than four all day and all night passages in foggy weather. Radar was invaluable. Radar also helps lock down the distances and speed of shipping lights at night. We were always amazed at just how many boats of all kinds are out there in the fog every day.

2. Thunderstorms. T-storms that begin over land seem to evaporate anywhere from 10 to 20 miles offshore. On the way back we made sure we were 25 - 30 miles offshore and not one storm touched us. The big commercial fishing fleets seem to appear at 40 - 60 miles offshore so, once again, offshore passagemaking at 30 miles out seems to be the safest and easiest. This may not hold true as storms get bigger and stronger later in the season. It was true for our trip though.

3. Hiking! Hiking really saved the trip for us. The Great Wass Nature Preserve and Acadia National Park were wonderful. When it's rainy and foggy in the harbor's, hiking in Maine is magnificent. Bring some lightweight hiking boots and have at it. Many trails are accessable with a very short amout of cross country hiking directly from the water. Dinghy in and hike! I loved the hiking in Maine.

4. I think if I lived in Maine I would own a full keeled boat and I would have the prop caged. Some people have cutters on their prop shafts but I think if I lived there I would go with a cage. There are so many lobster pots that sailing my C&C 40 with it's spade rudder and uncaged prop was very stressful. This is especially true north of Penobscot Bay where so many of the pots have toggles on a horizontal line floating five feet away from the main pot float. A full keel and a caged prop would make the experience much much more worry free.

5. Go to the mudhole anchorage on Great Wass island. Beautiful, protected, and great hiking through primal forest and along beaches. Wonderful!

6. A good chartplotter. The new chartplotters are amazing! Our Garmin 3210 made the trip much more enjoyable. Probably not as big a deal if you have lots and lots of local knowledge but for us doing everything for the first time the chartplotter made navigation much easier and safer.

7. Learn to harvest and prepare mussles! Steamed in white wine and garlic we had mussles most days we were Northeast of Frenchman Bay. Wonderful!

8. One odd thing... I'm not sure if gas prices were keeping the power yachts at home or the weather was responsible, but there were very few boats out cruising Maine this July. We didn't make any reservations anywhere and there were always many open moorings. The boats that we did see at moorings were mostly sailboats. It struck me especially in Camden where my cruising guide said you had to have reservations and even then expect to be rafted up two or three deep on a mooring ball. We showed up at 3pm in the afternoon one day and the harbormaster laughed when I asked if they had any of their 40 foot moorings still available. He said we could have our pick as they were all open except for two, we could also have a spot on an inner harbor float if we wanted it. This may also be an abberation but it made cruising in Maine this year very easy.

9. Sail Penobscot Bay. The fewest number of lobster pots and beautiful vistas. I loved Penobscot Bay.

10. Anchor or get a mooring ball in the great salt pond at Block Island, dinghy over to the thin strip of land that connects the two halves of the island, hike across the road and relax on the beach. Repeat as necessary. This has got to be one of the cheapest and best beach vacations you could ever go on. All that and people bring fresh pastries and coffee out to your boat each morning. How nice is that!


All in all a great trip,

George

[A30_John]

George, thanks for the pictures and great narrative.

I'm glad to see you had a good time in the NE, particularly Maine!

[keelbolts]

I guess this thread is history by now, but it made me think of a trip I made to Maine. Long story short: I've been to Bermuda & I've been to Maine and the Maine trip was much more enjoyable. Did you visit Matinicus Island? It seems to be Maine's equivalent of the Chesapeake's Tangier Island.